The Ent is nigh!
by Chibiscuit
Summary: An Atelier Meruru drabble. After the battle with the Ent, a little truth is written down for all to see. Established Gino/Lias


**The Arland trilogy is so ridiculously underrepresented in terms of fanfiction. It has so much potential! So I decided to write down this idea that suddenly came to me!**

**Note: I believe Lias and Rufus are orphans. Their parents don't get mentioned (that I remember) in-game and the little part about their past gave me that impression. This takes place right after beating the Ent and is based on how things went down in that fight in my game but you'll see.  
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**Disclaimer: As usual I own nothing!  
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"A—Ah, that was disappointing.", Gino sighed as the giant Ent came to a stop after having its core destroyed. With a quick sweep he removed the remaining tree juice from the blade and sheathed it. Not far from him Lias was picking Uni needles out his hair, wincing once and a while at the painful process. Grumbling and still busing himself with the job he walked over to Gino.

"…why did it only attack me though…?", Lias wondered. He half-expected Meruru to reply that he just had bad luck but no such answer came. The young alchemist had already left their side. Now that the forest was quiet, she could gather all kinds of new ingredients in peace so she didn't waste any time. Her two bodyguards saw her do just that not so far off. Since there was no danger nearby they let her be to do her thing. Neither of them understood much of alchemy or ingredients anyway.

"Maybe it wanted revenge.", Gino suddenly said, his voice a mixture between seriousness and amusement. It took Lias a moment to realize Gino was responding to his rather rhetoric question. Unsure whether the other was just joking or not, Lias decided to humour him anyway and answer.

"The Ent?", he checked and carried on after Gino's nod, "Why would he want that? I never did anything to it."

"You tried to 'Vanquish' it.", the adventurer replied flatly, "More than once."

"That doesn't count. It attacked us first.", Lias responded. A smile broke out on Gino's face making Lias feel rather stupid for ever answering so seriously.

"Okay then, it didn't like the fact that you carved your name and such in some trees in the past.", Gino carried on, grin growing by the second. Lias stared at him dumbfounded. What in the world was he talking about?

"Why would I have done that?", he finally asked back. Gino looked genuinely surprised by that answer. "You didn't?"

"No."

"Oh."

"Why? Did you?", Lias asked, suddenly curious. It wasn't really a thing he'd expect Gino to bring up in the first place so it got him wondering.

"Nope, but my mom told me once that dad had written their names on every tree he could find around Alanya.", Gino explained fondly.

"That's… nice.", Lias smiled but it was a little sad. He wondered whether his parents had ever done such things. How many of their stories had he never had the chance to hear?

Noticing the slight change in Lias' composure, Gino felt like hitting himself. He shouldn't have mentioned his parents. He quickly decided to distract the gatekeeper and cheer him up.

"Hey, we should try it!", he suggested.

"Huh? W-we?" Lias silently cursed at his stutter. He was pretty sure he knew what kind of carving Gino had meant the first time. Gino smiled, happy that he had Lias full attention again.

"Yeah! Come on, to mark our…", he paused for a bit, "erm… victory?", he finished lamely but shrugged it off and walked over to the tree trunk without waiting for the gatekeeper's consent. He drew his sword and with a few swift swings carved something in the tree. Grinning from ear to ear he motioned for Lias to come over and take a look. When the ravenhead saw the carving all words left him. He just stared at it, open-mouthed and eyes wide. Actually seeing it written down had a much larger impact on him than he dared to admit.

"Hey, what are you looking at?"

At the sound of Meruru's voice, Lias snapped out of his daze. On instinct he jumped in front of the carving. "N-Nothing…!"

Meruru looked at him suspiciously, "Nothing?"

"We were just carving.", Gino supplied happily.

"Oh, what did you carve?", Meruru asked.

"Just the truth.", Gino answered, glancing at Lias who stared back at him. The gravity of the implications dawning on him, his face heat up and his heartbeat quickened. "Right?", Gino added.

Lias nodded, "Right."

Meruru stared confused between the two. They were both acting rather suspicious, especially Lias. However, he also seemed extremely happy despite his strange reaction earlier on. The princess didn't know what to make of it. Before she could ask, Lias moved away from the tree.

"It's getting late. We should head back.", he said as he walked away. With his arms crossed behind his head Gino followed him.

"If we hurry we can be back by sunset.", Lias carried on.

Meruru looked at the tree, curious to see what this truth was.

GINO 3 LIAS

The heart was a bit crooked and too round and there was no punctuation on "I"'s.

"Ginoolias?", she read puzzled. "What does that mean?", she pondered.

"Hey, Meruru, you coming?", Gino called back.

"Ah wait for me!", the princess yelled back and ran after them. She didn't understand what this truth was but it seemed to make her friends happy and that was all that really mattered to her.

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**I don't think many people (if any) will read this but if you did THANK YOU SO MUCH and I hope you enjoyed it!**

**Chibiscuit**


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